The Mantrap

Abstract

The Mantrap is a burlesque horror novella set between suburban Sydney and a fictional, inner-city burlesque theatre. The story follows Frankie Follie, a washed-up showgirl haunted by her mother’s legacy and the specter of the stage that killed her. It opens in a hallucinogenic haze that blurs reality into surrealism, solidifying Frankie’s delusion as its baseline. As she navigates the collision of the woman she’s trying to be— trophy wife, mother, satisfied suburbanite—with the darker parts she can’t forget, she’s drawn back to The Mantrap theater. There, she confronts the shame and secrecy of her tragedy, the horrors of motherhood, and the revival of an undead dream, pushing her toward her destiny. The novella explores duality, generational trauma, and the female body as a site of violence. It ‘burlesques’ story by using parody, camp, and splatstick to frame its critique, and contributes to contemporary feminist horror by positioning exploitation as something inescapable, inherited, and even desired.